Book Focus

Highlighting a few of the many books Jane Ross has been involved in producing or editing through her company, MJR Publishing Services.

A Jewish Girlhood in Berlin, 1859-1879 The memoir of Jenny Barth Bornstein, who would go on to become one of the very first women doctors in Germany in the early years of the twentieth century. A spirited and intelligent child, Jenny grew up in an affluent German, Jewish, middle-class home at the height of Bismarck’s Germany and was a keen observer of the social and political life going on around her. Written in German when Jenny was in her nineties, the memoir was recently discovered by Jenny’s great-granddaughter Olga and painstakingly translated, edited and annotated by Olga and her husband. Photographs dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, an introduction by the editors and bibliography round out this volume.

Brown Babies, Pink Parentsis a practical guide for Caucasian parents who are raising Black children. Author Amy Ford is the adoptive mother of three African American daughters, with first-hand experience of the challenges of transracial parenting. She addresses a multitude of concerns including basic skin and hair care, racial socialization, accepting white privilege, and ways to celebrate the diversity of your family.

La Familia de los Santos is the gripping memoir of Lita de los Santos who grew up on a small farm in north Texas in the Depression years of the 1930s. A unique story by a unique storyteller whose sharp mind, vivid memory and touching stories belie her 80-plus years.

Lita writes from first-hand knowledge of the dust bowl, the Depression, and Roosevelt’s farm programs and most especially from her wealth of personal memories of life as the fifteenth child of a sharecropping family that faced life with humor and love even in tight times. Read more.

Kitchen Table Stories is an anthology of food stories and related recipes from the women of Story Circle Network. In 2007, Jane Ross coordinated a team of 10 volunteer editors to edit the stories and recipes of their fellow Story Circle Network members to create a community cookbook that was an enjoyable read with recipes that were consistent and user-friendly.

Writing Our Lives is a 100-page anthology of short pieces of memoir writing by the women of the Continuing OWL Writing Circle. Published privately in 2006 through print-on-demand service Lulu.com, the book includes work by 10 women lifewriters, of whom three have gone on to self-publish their own book-length memoirs.